Detailed step-by-step guide to making a water-and-land bonsai, easy for beginners to learn

  Water-and-land bonsai is rich in painterly charm, blending scenery and emotion, appealing to both refined and popular tastes, and is a form loved by the broad masses. Making a water-and-land bonsai requires not only the basic skills for working with tree bonsai, but also experience in making landscape bonsai, and demands that the creator have a high level of cultural and artistic cultivation. Only with hills and valleys in the heart, an eye for beauty, and rich practical experience can one create outstanding works.

  1. Selecting trees

  In water-and-land bonsai, trees hold a relatively prominent position. The form and charm of the trees have an important influence on the composition, scene arrangement, expressive quality and emotional resonance. Trees in bonsai can be planted singly, or planted together or in groups. Singly planted trees require a relatively perfect shape; trees planted together or in groups require a unified style, with distinctions of size, height and primary-secondary relationship. Because water-and-land bonsai expresses natural scenery, the posture of the trees should be natural and not affected or contrived. The trees selected are best those that have been cultivated in pots, with mature root systems, so they are easy to establish when planted into a water-and-land bonsai.

  2. Selecting stones

  In water-and-land bonsai, rocks are the companions of the trees, and they also best reflect the waterscape and geomorphic features. Hard stones are mostly used for making water-and-land bonsai, because they have a good texture and will not let water seep through when separating the water and land. Commonly used hard stones include Yingde stone, turtle-vein stone, Xuan stone, stalactite stone and so on. Porous stones such as sandstone-accumulated stone and reed-pipe stone can also be used for water-and-land bonsai, but because the stone has fine pores and can let water seep through, anti-seepage treatment is needed when separating the water and land. Different stone types differ in texture, shape, grain and color, and which stone type to choose should be determined by the content the work expresses. Within the same kind of stone, the variations in grain and color are also great, so when selecting stones, special attention should be paid to the coordinated unity of texture, shape, grain and color. Stones used for sloping banks and water surfaces need their bottoms cut flat so that they fit tightly against the basin surface when placed in the basin. Stone can be cut with a mineral cutting machine.

  3. Selecting the basin

  For making water-and-land bonsai, it is suitable to use a shallow white marble basin with no hole in the bottom, which can store water and make it easy to express waterscapes. A shallow basin can highlight the winding, graceful water bank line; as the saying goes, "Mountains come alive because of water, water turns because of mountains." The plain color of the basin is like a sheet of white paper, setting off the "painting" formed by trees and stones to the fullest. As for the shape of the basin, rectangular, oval and kidney-shaped are more suitable, square and round are used less, and irregularly shaped basins are not advisable.

  4. Preparing the trees

  The tree material used for water-and-land bonsai must undergo a certain amount of processing and preparation so that it has a graceful posture and meets the requirements of scene creation. The processing can adopt a method combining wiring and pruning, considering both the posture and charm of the tree itself and the needs of composition and layout. If multiple trees are planted together or in groups, then the relationships of primary and secondary, advancing and yielding among them must be worked out. If the root system affects planting, the roots should also be appropriately pruned or wired so that they can be conveniently planted in the basin.

  5. Trial layout

  Layout is an important part of making water-and-land bonsai. First place the selected trees in suitable positions in the basin, then arrange the rocks and design a winding sloping bank. During the trial placement, observe while adjusting, so that the trees and stones coordinate with each other and the layout is natural and rich in artistic conception. Common layout forms include waterside style, rivers-and-lakes style, stream-and-ravine style and so on. After the layout is determined, a pencil can be used to draw the positions of the rocks along the water bank line in the basin, and if necessary each piece can be numbered so as to "match by number" during the making process.

  6. Gluing the rocks

  After the layout is determined, take away the trees and rocks, wash the basin and rocks separately and let them dry, then glue the stones one by one into the basin according to the pencil lines in the basin. The specific method is to use 107 glue mixed with cement as the adhesive, apply the cement to the bottom surface of the stone with a small scraper, and glue it in the previously determined position. After gluing one piece, cement must be applied between adjacent stones so that the stones are joined tightly. After this process is completed, the goal of separating water and land is achieved. To make the sloping bank beautiful and clean, an oil painting brush can be dipped in water to brush away excess cement from the gluing. If it is porous stone, a further layer of cement must be applied on the inner side of the sloping bank (the side holding soil) to ensure no seepage.

  7. Planting the trees

  After the rocks are glued and fixed in the basin, the trees can be planted. The specific method is to first spread a layer of soil on the basin surface on the soil-storage side, place the trees in, and adjust the planting height by the thickness of the padding soil. After the positioning is satisfactory, fill soil around the root system, and use a small bamboo stick to poke the soil firm so that the roots and soil combine tightly, which helps survival. While planting, appropriately create undulating terrain.

  8. Embellishing with rocks

  At this point, although the bonsai has begun to take shape, the rocks by the water bank are like a "stone embankment ridge": dry is dry, water is water, and it is somewhat stiff and rigid. If some rocks are dotted on the dry land and water surface, the situation is quite different. Rocks scattered on the soil surface not only enrich the terrain and landforms and perfect the composition, but also echo the rocks by the water bank, making the whole landscape harmoniously integrated. Dotted with several rocks, the water surface is like reefs emerging from the water, which can make the originally empty water surface become lively.

  9. Laying moss

  Moss in bonsai is like grassland; with the covering of moss, the bonsai becomes full of vitality. When laying moss, first use a sprayer to moisten the soil surface, then place pieces of moss brought over with soil one by one onto the soil surface and press gently firm. With moss as an intermediary between trees and stones, it appears more natural, and the colors of the bonsai also become richer. Laying moss in the basin can also protect the soil surface and avoid soil erosion caused by watering or water washing. After the moss is laid, use a watering can to water the basin soil thoroughly.

  10. Placing ornaments

  In order to enrich the artistic conception and highlight the theme, sometimes ornaments need to be placed in the bonsai. Commonly used ornaments include boats, bridges, pavilions, thatched huts, water pavilions, figures and so on, with ceramic ornaments produced in Foshan, Guangdong being the most suitable. The choice of ornaments must be appropriate, the proportions with the scenery must be reasonable, and the placement positions must stand up to scrutiny. Ornaments should add the finishing touch, and must not be superfluous.